It’s been a long while since the public saw or heard from the acclaimed actor Daniel Day-Lewis. Following his announcement in 2017 declaring he would cease to pursue acting, prior to the release of The Phantom Thread, the actor quietly faded from view. However, in his absence, his reputation expanded further.
The Legend of His Method
Primarily, this reputation revolves around his preferred approach to roles. Being an actor known for immerses himself in the roles he plays – for example, during Lincoln, he had the director call him “Mr. President” for the entire production – audiences has become more fascinated with his process. Is it true he actually sent texts to Sally Field in character as Lincoln? Was it accurate that he consumed solely game he hunted for Last of the Mohicans? And did he insist on being spoon-fed for My Left Foot?
Extreme acting methods: have we lost interest with over-the-top performances?
Now, Daniel Day-Lewis is back in the limelight, somewhat reluctantly, for his new film Anemone. He is using this to vocalise his anger regarding how the Method technique is viewed. “I am somewhat annoyed nowadays when I hear various individuals gobbling off and using phrases like ‘fully embraced the Method’, which I think suggests that a person’s behaving like a lunatic in a drastic way,” he told a major publication. “Everyone tends to focus on superficial aspects of acting, and those details always seem to involve some form of self-flagellation or a situation that imposes upon oneself a severe discomfort or psychological strain. But of course, in the career for a performer, it must mainly focus on the internal work.”
An Industry Full of Followers
Frankly, it appears like Day-Lewis has emerged from seclusion only to discover aghast at the acting community that has developed mirroring his methods. When you are widely considered one of the greatest actors in history, and your process includes headbutting a dummy to the point of injury (in Gangs of New York) or spending 48 hours in solitary confinement deprived of sustenance (during In the Name of the Father), then it stands to reason that other actors will attempt to fill that vacuum by trying to mimic your hero.
In other words, we now live in a landscape full of imperfect Day-Lewis impersonators who want nothing more than to demonstrate the sheer amount of effort they put into a character. On the milder side of the pool there are performers such as Lady Gaga, who was determined to earn an Academy Award with House of Gucci that she spent the whole campaign attempting to persuade people that she became functionally Italian for a year and a half in preparation.
Additionally, there is Jared Leto, who decided to immerse himself in the character of the Joker (for Suicide Squad) through sending “horrifying” presents to fellow cast members. These items, depending on who you ask, range from dead pigs and rats to intimate objects and personal hygiene products, though the actor refuted the most extreme claims. And then, naturally, we have Jim Carrey, who immersed himself so fully into Andy Kaufman during Man on the Moon that they succeeded to get a full-length documentary from behind-the-scenes footage of him causing difficulties as impossible as he could for everyone around him.
The Modern Method Practitioners
The foremost practitioner of the Method currently would appear to be Jeremy Strong (once an assistant to Day-Lewis), whose approach while filming Succession was so rigorously detailed that it became the basis of a critical New Yorker profile, full of quotes from people who were worried for his behaviour (“It’s the cost to himself that worries me,” said co-star Brian Cox) or extremely irritated by it (“I remember him causing others roll their eyes,” stated an unnamed co-star).
Daniel Day-Lewis says he ‘did not plan to stop acting, truly’
We have numerous additional cases. Andrew Garfield went celibate over half a year for Silence. Leonardo DiCaprio rested inside a dead animal during The Revenant. It’s quite possible that Austin Butler continues to talk like Elvis Presley, three years after the movie’s release. Each of these instances, to some extent, is meant to invoke the seriousness with which Day-Lewis approaches his craft.
A Noble Yet Challenging Fight
And, while his fightback to critics of the Method could be commendable, a brief promotional cycle may prove insufficient to change anyone’s mind, let alone their practices. Maybe if he wishes to remind people the true essence of the Method, or to show them what it can achieve, then Day-Lewis’s best bet is to just begin producing more films. Certainly everyone would get behind that.
